Remedy
by Moving Mountains
Summary: After an unsuccessful training practice, Robin discovers something about Raven's healing abilities that she's been withholding - something that causes him conflict. How can he stop his team being in pain without causing more of it? [One-shot]


Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans or anything affiliated with it.

* * *

The majority of the Titans were displeased when the beeping of their communicators disturbed their alone time, even more so when they read Robin's message asking them to congregate in the training room, but they knew better than to disobey their leader's orders. One-by-one, they made their way down to one of the lower levels of the tower. No one was surprised to see Beast Boy come through the door last – nor were they surprised by his complaining.

"Dude! We've had five battles in three days – _five_! Don't ya think we deserve a break?"

Robin had learned better than to answer him and knew that a glare would suffice in shutting down the changeling. He smirked when Beast Boy huffed, crossing his arms like a petulant toddler.

"I know you're tired," he started, addressing the whole team. "I am too, but our last battle with Cinderblock lasted too long and the mayor is on my ass for the damage we caused. We need to work more on our hand-to-hand combat; powers are banned."

From the corner of his eye, he noticed the floating demoness tense up beneath her cloak. "Is that a problem, Raven?"

Cursing his powers of observation, Raven shook her head, not trusting her voice to not come out shakily and make him more suspicious. He would see through her like a freshly polished sheet of glass, and it was the last thing she wanted. She could tell by the look on his face that he didn't quite believe her… but didn't know enough to call her out on it.

"She's probably just scared that I'm gonna kick her ass," Cyborg smirked, punching his fist as his competitive side took control.

Raven threatened coolly, "You're going to need welding back together by the time I'm done with you," throwing a smirk of her own at the half-robot who winked back.

Robin explained that they would pair up and fight while one of them refereed and the remaining two watched the altercation, ready to spot mistakes and give advice afterwards. Raven was relieved when she was asked to referee the first match between Cyborg and Starfire. Floating behind the two strongest members of the team, she called for them to begin. The Tamaranian had the upper hand thanks to the agility and flexibility she possessed that the half-robot lacked; Raven admired the way Starfire dodged and ducked away from Cyborg's attempts to punch her, memorising her strategy ready for when she faced her opponent. However, Cyborg's strength finally overpowered the alien. He got hold of her and pinned her to the floor. She called the match and declared the winner before levitating back over to her friends.

She zoned out as Robin and Beast Boy gave their feedback, taking a moment to meditate. She needed it. She didn't know how she would get through this fight, or how she was going to convince the others that she was able to. Suddenly, she was shaken from her thoughts by the feel of something slimy touching her face: more specifically, a green chameleon's tongue.

"Did you just lick my nose?" she asked in disgust.

Morphing back into his regular human form, Beast Boy defended himself. "Well you were a million miles away and not answering me! What else was I supposed to do?"

"How about a gentle shove," she hissed lowly, wiping the saliva from her face with the corner of her cloak.

The changeling chuckled as he cheekily teased, "I thought I'd be more… creative."

"You'll pay for that in the ring," she threatened, levitating to the centre of the gym where Cyborg and Starfire fought before.

Raising an eyebrow, Beast Boy said, "Were you not paying attention? You're fighting Robin."

_'Great,'_ she thought, looking at her leader as he walked towards her. '_I'm screwed.'_

Robin stood opposite her, his palms raised and ready to apprehend her. He watched her floating above the floor and gave her an impatient look. Thankfully her hood was raised, covering her face and the look of dread that adorned it. This was going to hurt – badly. She slowly lowered herself to the ground, putting as much of her weight on her right leg as possible, but still wincing as her left one made contact with the floor.

If Robin noticed her discomfort, he didn't show it as he charged towards her. She dodged out of the way of his flying fist and readied herself for his next attack, which she just about avoided by leaning to the right. Sweat began to bead on her forehead. She could hear Starfire encouraging her like a cheerleader, but it sounded as if she was underwater. Robin's fist slammed into her face, sending her back a few steps. She could feel her heartbeat in her ears. Raven gasped as she saw Robin dive down, ready to kick her ankle out from under her. His steel-toed boot crashed into her foot.

Before she could fall to the ground, he reached out and grabbed her wrist, keeping her steady. He knew something was wrong: although physical combat was by no means a strength of hers, the sorceress was normally not this defensive in a training session. At the sound of her slow deep breathing, he gently put an arm around her and asked her what was wrong as the others started coming over to check on them both. Everything went blurry as she collapsed into Robin's arms, darkness consuming her.

* * *

She awoke to the unwelcome sound of the infirmary machines and a pounding headache. Slowly opening her eyes, she scanned the room and found that she was alone. Sunlight streamed in through the windows that overlooked the beautiful skyline of Jump City. Trying to recollect what had happened, she remembered being in the training room and then... her memory was hazy.

"Friend Raven, you have awakened!"

The rest of the team filed into the infirmary behind Starfire with varied looks on their faces: Starfire smiled, clearly pleased to see that her friend was awake; Beast Boy also smiled, but concern swam in his eyes; the corners of Robin's mask turned down – his tell that he was deep in thought – as he gazed deeply into her eyes, trying to piece everything together like a puzzle; and Cyborg's expression was serious as he went over to the console to analyse her readings.

"What happened?" she groaned weakly as her eyes adjusted to the bright lights.

"You passed out during your fight with Robin," Beast Boy explained, sitting at the end of the bed she occupied.

"How are you feeling now?" Cyborg asked as his eyes stayed glued to the screen. According to the data displayed in front of him, there was no obvious indication as to why she would faint: her blood sugar was regular, she was well hydrated and showed no signs of injury.

"Tired," she answered, turning her body slightly so she could see the most medically-qualified member of the team. Fire shot up her left leg. Her memory came flooding back. "But other than that I'm fine."

The end of the sentence came out a little too quickly for Robin's liking. He stared at her skeptically from his position leaning against the wall by the door.

"Perhaps you are simply experiencing the energy loss because of the abundance of fights that have taken place?" Starfire suggested with a sympathetic smile. "I am happy to make you a rakbloglargh, friend; it is traditional for my people to eat it as a means to replenish their strength after battle."

Knowing from experience that eating one of Starfire's Tamaranian delicacies was more likely to put Raven in the hospital as opposed to keeping her out of it, Beast Boy offered an excuse for the bedridden demoness, saying that all she needed was some rest. While Starfire looked disheartened, Raven silently thanked the changeling for the save. He returned it with a nod and a smirk, stealthily communicating that she owed him big time for it.

Offering the only other female team member a smile, she said, "Thank you for the thought though, Star." This small gesture of gratitude was enough to cheer her up again.

"If you will excuse me, I must prepare for my scheduled patrol of the downtown." She stood up and headed for the door. "I am most glad that you are on the avenue to amendment, friend Raven." The men wished her a safe patrol and watched her leave.

"Well Rae, I reckon that a few hours of rest and relaxation are all you need. I can't see anything else wrong."

"You're dismissed from missions for the next twenty-four hours so you can recuperate."

"Dude! That's not fair!" Beast Boy moaned in response to Robin's statement. "I bet she's faking just so she gets a break."

"Yes, BB, that's totally something Raven would do," Cyborg said sarcastically, rolling his eyes at his best friend's level of immaturity. He turned back to his patient. "I know you'd prefer to be in your room and that if I try to stop you, you'll send me to another dimension so you're free to go."

"I'll walk you to your room."

"There's no need," she said to Robin, keeping her voice as monotonous and nonchalant as always. "I can teleport, remember." She melted through a portal of black energy that disappeared after her.

But there was a need, because despite the air of mystery that normally surrounded the secluded sorceress, Robin knew his friend well enough to know that she was keeping something from him, and he was determined to find out what it was.

* * *

Raven collapsed on to her bed, trying to ignore the stabbing pain that was slowly sending her into a spiral of madness and the feeling of apprehension that clenched around her throat. Had she given anything away? She was fooling herself - and seriously underestimating her leader - if she pretended that her actions hadn't raised some suspicions. After years of keeping her secret under wraps, she couldn't afford for it to be revealed – the team couldn't. Throwing her head back against her pillow in frustration, she gasped as one of her statues shattered, littering her dark carpet with shards of stone. A sweep of her hand was all it took to clean up the pieces as she encased the broken ornament with her power and levitated the remnants of it into her bin.

"Raven, can we talk?"

Robin. He was outside her door.

"I was just about to fall asleep. Can it wait until-"

"No."

His tone left no room for argument and she knew that the longer she kept him waiting, the harder it would be to get rid of him. Sighing – and hoping the interrogation would be over with soon – she floated to the door, opening it to reveal her leader. She didn't need to see his eyes to know that they were searching her up and down.

"I know you're hiding something from me, Raven." He went straight to the point. She expected nothing less from him.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said confidently.

He frowned at her, disappointed – and slightly impressed – with her ability to lie so easily. "Oh really, so losing fights and collapsing are regular habits now?" he said sarcastically, looking her straight in her violet eyes. "You didn't even try to fight offensively earlier; it's not like you and I'm worried."

Through the bond they'd established while he was under the influence of Slade's hallucinogen, she felt the sincerity behind his words. It made lying that much harder.

"Nothing's wrong, Robin. The past few days have been exhausting, that's all."

"You've been exhausted before and never acted like this," he pointed out, taking a step forward and placing a hand on her shoulder. Only then did he realise that her feet were hovering off the ground. "Why are you levitating?"

"I'm half-demon in case you forgot: I've always been able to levitate," she remarked wittily.

Robin's eyes narrowed, making it clear that he wasn't in the mood for her trademark sarcastic remarks. "That doesn't explain why you're levitating now."

"Do you question Starfire whenever she floats around the tower too?"

"Raven, I'm just trying to help you," he said calmly, withdrawing his arm as she became more agitated. "Please don't make this difficult."

"You're the one disturbing me when I'm trying to sleep!"

From behind the threshold of her room, both Titans heard something smash. Robin refocused on Raven once more, refusing to leave without getting an explanation out of her.

"Fine, I'll leave you alone."

She sighed in relief, a movement that didn't go unnoticed. "Thank-"

"If you stand on the floor."

She froze, thankful that her cloak was shadowing most of her face lest he see the look of shock that was plastered on it. He was calling her bluff. Raven stayed in the air as Robin looked at her, his look of seriousness morphing into one of concern that amplified with every second that passed. He stepped forward once more, reaching for her arm in a brotherly gesture of comfort.

"Why can't you stand, Raven?" he whispered, replaying every fight from the past few days in his head, trying to recall any moment when she could have been injured. Perhaps during their most recent altercation with Cinderblock? No, only Beast Boy left that fight wounded and she had healed him the moment they returned to the tower, relocating the changeling's dislocated hip joint.

Realisation slammed into him like his fist had her face. He reached forward, moving the edge of her cloak open to reveal her body. Hidden beneath the leg of her leotard, he could see the edge of a fiercely purple bruise contrasting against her pale skin.

"Let's go inside," Robin said quietly, urging the demoness into her bedroom.

He was angry, angry that – if his theory was correct – Raven had been endangering herself for the entire length of her career as a Titan. She'd lied to them, lied to protect them, but at what cost?

* * *

Robin told her to lie on her bed so he could check her hip. Raven complied, knowing that there was no point in resisting. He knew. She'd failed at keeping her secret. She'd just made her friends' lives more difficult. She winced as he pulled away the material of her leotard and revealed the grotesque bruise in its entirety.

"This is Beast Boy's injury, isn't it?" he said as his fingers delicately danced across her hip. Having worked with Batman for many years, he'd witnessed his fair share of beatings and breaks and was confused to find that her hip was securely in its socket where it belonged.

"Not exactly," she admitted, telling the truth despite her discomfort. Feeling the elastic of her leotard and the weight of her cloak falling back into their rightful places, Raven watched as her leader and close friend walked across the room to her desk, grabbed the chair that was nestled underneath and placed it opposite her.

"I need you to explain this to me."

She sighed, knowing that he wasn't going to like what he was about to hear and hoping that his logic would overpower his need to protect her.

"Whenever I heal an injury, I absorb the pain of it," she explained, looking down at her lap. "It only lasts for a couple of days, but when the injury is more serious…"

"You take its appearance too," he finished for her, the disharmony of purples and yellows painting a horrid reminder in his short-term memory.

She nodded and continued, hoping to reassure him that it wasn't as bad as it looked. "I don't take on the injury, only its sensation. That's why Cyborg's scan didn't pick it up."

"And why you couldn't fight."

Robin was conflicted. Four years of fighting by her side, four years of admiring, fearing and harnessing her tremendous power; four years of watching one of his closest friends blossom from the lost, frightened, homeless girl he'd recruited into the mysterious, beautiful, capable woman she was today; and in those four years, she hadn't trusted him with this. Raven had many admirable qualities – too many to name – but they were all outshone by her stubbornness, by her selfish need to protect other people and not herself. Her life had been full of pain. He had to question why she took on more.

"But, I've seen you heal yourself?" He pictured her floating above the bed in the infirmary after Adonis had attacked her.

"I can heal injuries inflicted upon me, but not ones I adopt from others. I have my father to thank for that."

The cacophony of emotions he was radiating was making Raven feel nauseous but she didn't need to be an empath to know how Robin was feeling: responsible. It was one of his greatest assets, his need to take accept responsibility for his team. It was also one of his greatest weaknesses, struggling with the weight of the team's problems on his shoulders when he could share the load.

"I can handle it," she stressed. "You know it's makes sense for me to be in discomfort for a day or two instead of one of you potentially being injured for weeks."

"You shouldn't have to!" he shouted, guilt eating away at him when Raven jumped. He tried to reign in his anger but the more he thought about it, the harder it was to hinder. "I can't believe you kept this to yourself all these years," he said, pacing the length of the room and running his fingers through his hair in frustration. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because you'd never let me heal any of you again, and you know I can't let you do that."

She was right. Even though his head could understand why it made sense for her to heal injuries, his heart ached at the thought of her in pain that could be avoided. Every time she'd enveloped one of them in her warm blue glow played in his mind like a film: when she'd healed his fractured forearm before they met 'Larry'; the time when Starfire suffered a serious blow to the head causing a mild concussion; when Beast Boy got third-degree burns on his back during an unexpected explosion. All those instances, and many more, she had been in pain. The thought made his stomach lurch.

He collapsed back into her chair, massaging his temple as he felt the beginnings of a headache manifest. "You should have told me, Raven."

Her resolve remained strong. "I'm not sorry I didn't. I've been healing you all for years and its never been a problem until today."

"It's never been a problem, or we've never noticed?"

She could have explained that of course she hurt, that it was one of the main reasons she needed to meditate as often as she did, that sometimes she barely slept because of the discomfort she was in, but she would rather overcome that pain than watch someone she loved experience it. Pain also included knowing the intimate details of her abilities – the truth.

"My demonic heritage means I feel less pain than regular humans, and my healing powers are one of the only good things my father granted me – even if it hurts sometimes." She reached for his hand, taking it in her own in a rare gesture and lightly squeezing it. "I will never stop healing you guys."

He held her hand for a while longer, stroking the top with his thumb before letting go. "You're too stubborn for your own good."

"So you've told me before," she smiled sadly.

He leaned back, exhaling a deep breath as the tension left his body. "I don't like this, Raven."

She didn't doubt it. In the last ten minutes, he looked like he'd aged. "I know you don't," she affirmed quietly, thankful that he cared about her, "But you know it makes sense."

"It doesn't make this any easier. Can you at least compromise?" he said, taking charge of the situation the only way he knew how when bartering with the interdimensional demoness. Determined to not let her suffer more than necessary, he ordered, "You must promise to ask me for help: if you need to miss a fight or a patrol I want to know. And you can't heal serious injuries unless they're life-threatening."

"Only if you promise not to tell the others."

Robin hated keeping secrets from the team. Withholding information had landed him in serious trouble with his friends before. But he knew that if he revealed the reality of Raven's healing abilities, Beast Boy would be consumed with guilt and would never let her touch him again; Cyborg would get defensive and protective like the older brother he was; and Starfire would be upset that Raven had lied to them all. He reluctantly nodded in agreement.

"Thank you, Robin."

They fell into an awkward silence, interrupted by Raven moaning and holding her hip.

"Can you pass me the painkillers in the top draw?" she asked. Robin didn't hesitate in finding them and dispensing two into her hand. Before he could offer to fetch her a glass of water, she swallowed the pills dry.

He took one last look at her before putting the chair back behind her desk. "I'll leave you to get some rest – and I'll tell Beast Boy not to pester you."

* * *

The moment his bedroom door closed, Robin's facade crumbled and he slid down the wall. It was at times like this that he wished he wasn't the leader of the Teen Titans: the one who had to walk the fine line between jeopardising trust and keeping confidentiality, the utilitarian who had to make decisions he disagreed with for the greater good of the team, the hero who had to worry about his friends and their well-being even though they possessed powers beyond his wildest fantasies and were capable of things he could only dream of.

Suddenly, the room was glowing red as the alarm sounded. Putting his personal turmoil on the backburner, he straightened his mask and ran towards the living area. There he found Cyborg and Beast Boy kneeling on the ground next to a wounded Starfire. Raven flew out of a portal next to them, stunned at the sight before her.

"What happened?" Robin asked her, looking at the blood pouring from between Cyborg's fingers as he applied pressure to her wound.

Starfire hissed in agony, "I am sorry, friends. I lost focus during the apprehension of a robber."

"Look's like she's been shot," Cyborg said calmly, peeling away some of his fingers to take a closer look at the injury. "Rae, if I remove the bullet, can you heal her arm?"

Robin caught Raven's eye, his face stoic. Is this what it would be like every time one of them was hurt from now on? Would he always feel this uneasy knowing that while a Titan's pain was alleviated, another would fall victim to it? Could he in good conscience watch one of his closest friends make this decision over and over again?

Her soothing voice echoed in his mind. '_I'll be fine.'_

He watched as Raven's hands glowed, as she placed them on Starfire's arm, as she pulled away moments later and clutched her own beneath her cloak. He watched her swallow her pain, and wondered if it hurt him this much to watch, how much did it truly hurt her to be a remedy?


End file.
